Petoskey school board discusses potential cuts

not onboard with pay-to-play

The Petoskey Board of Education began discussing possible cuts to the district’s 2010-11 budget Monday during a special meeting at the Spitler Administration Building.

The district is faced with a projected $1.6 million shortfall next school year, and has less than two months to decide what should stay and what should go before passing its budget by June 30 — the state’s deadline.

During the meeting, John Scholten, superintendent of the Public Schools of Petoskey, presented a rough draft of possible cuts to the board, which included a potential reduction of eight teaching positions, either through lay-offs or an early retirement buy-out ($630,000 in possible savings to the district); changing classroom aides’ health insurance to single-subscriber coverage ($181,135 in savings); allowing four administrators to retire and be rehired by the district through ContractEd — a third-party contractor ($183,546 in savings); and pay-to-play sports and extracurriculars ($100,000 in savings to the district), among others.

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Scholten’s draft included 17 possible cuts out of 66 cost-saving ideas for the district which had been compiled through recent meetings with staff and administrators.

“None of this stuff is popular — none of us like this,” Scholten said. “But, it is crucial for our district’s survival.”

The board, as a whole, did not seem thrilled with the pay-to-play idea.

“I’m philosophically against it,” said Jack Waldvogel, treasurer of the board.

“I just think, in our economy, we shouldn’t be asking the community to pony up more money,” said Tom Rellinger, president of the school board. “I’m still very leery on that ... we should look at every possible option first.”

Mary Ling, board secretary, said what concerned her most about pay-to-play, was losing student interest at the middle-school level.

“At the middle school, they’re encouraging students to try new things ... I would hate to have that hindered because of money,” she said. “I’m just concerned that we not exclude those kids who can’t afford it.”

Kent Cartwright, chief financial officer for the district, said, as of the 2007-08 school year, 50 percent of class A schools had administered pay-to-play.

“I see a lot of folks are going to this,” Cartwright said.

Although the board was not entertaining the idea, Scholten said he believed pay-to-play was a viable option for cost savings to the district.

“I feel we’re in a society where we pay for extracurriculars ... there just aren’t too many other choices,” he said. “As unpopular as it may be to some, this is something we can do without too much pain.”

The board will again discuss potential cuts at its next board meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 20, in Petoskey High School’s media center.

Final cuts will be made at the board’s June meeting, which was pushed back from Thursday, June 17 to Monday, June 28. This meeting will also take place at 7 p.m.

Both meetings are open to the public, and feedback on the budget is welcome.